GI Tags For Goan Mangoes And Bebinca, Crafts From Rajasthan and U.P.

Relevance: GS 3 - Issues relating to intellectual property rights; Prelims

(Source: The Hindu,08/02/23)

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Why in the news?

• Recently, seven products from different regions in India were given the Geographical Indication (GI) tag by the Geographical Indications Registry in Chennai.
• The products are ‘Jalesar Dhatu Shilp’ (a metal craft), ‘Goa Mankurad Mango’, ‘Goan Bebinca’, ‘Udaipur Koftgari Metal Craft’, ‘Bikaner Kashidakari Craft’, ‘Jodhpur Bandhej Craft’, and ‘Bikaner Usta Kala Craft’.
  • Geographical indications (GIs) are intellectual property (IP) rights that serve to identify a product that originates from a specific geographical area and that has a quality, reputation, or other characteristics that are essentially attributable to its geographical origin.

GI tag products

Goa

• Mankurad mango: The mango variety is known by several names, including malcorada, cardozo mankurad, corado, and Goa mankur. The Portuguese originally named it malcorada, meaning 'poor colored'. Over time, it evolved into mankurad aamo (mango) in Konkani, the local language.
• Goan bebinca: Bebinca is also known as the ‘queen of Goan desserts’, is a traditional Indo-Portuguese pudding.

Uttar Pradesh

• Jalesar Dhatu Shilp: In Jalesar, Uttar Pradesh's Etah district, the Thatheras community in the locality of Hathuras make 'Jalesar Dhatu Shilp,' which includes anklets, bells, and other decorative metal craft and brassware.

Rajasthan

• Udaipur Koftgari Metal Craft: Udaipur Koftgari Metal Craft involves exquisitely ornamenting weapons through a complex process. It includes etching designs, heating, and cooling, along with embedding gold and silver wire into the metal, pressing and flattening it to achieve a smooth surface with moonstone, and ultimately polishing it to perfection.
• Bikaner Kashidakari Craft: It is traditionally made on cotton, silk or velvet with a variety of fine stitches and mirror-work, mainly for objects associated with marriage, especially gift items. The mirrors used in this craft are believed to protect against the 'evil eye' due to their reflective surfaces.
• The Meghwal community in Bikaner and nearby districts traditionally weaved fabrics by hand for this craft.
• Jodhpur Bandhej Craft: It is a Rajasthani art of tying and dyeing. GPT

Bandhej is a renowned textile art form in Rajasthan, using fabrics like muslin, silk, and voile. Cotton thread is used for tying the fabric.

• Bikaner Usta Kala Craft: The 'Bikaner Usta Kala Craft,' also known as gold nakashi or gold manauti work, is famous for its long-lasting golden color. The craft involves processing and molding untreated raw camel hide by the skilled leather craftspeople of the Dapgar community to meet the requirements of the Usta

What are the benefits of registration of geographical indications?

• Legal protection: It confers legal protection to Geographical Indications in India and prevents unauthorized use of a Registered Geographical Indication by others.
• It encourages the preservation of biodiversity, local know-how and natural resources.
• Economic prosperity: Geographical Indications boost export and promotes economic prosperity of producers of goods produced in a geographical territory.
• It will automatically resolve the three fraught India issues of poor pay for talent, low female participation in the labour force, and urban migration.
• Create Passion economy: It will convert talent into entrepreneurship with gig workers, and create a “passion” economy, that is, a new way for individuals to monetise their skills and scale their businesses exponentially.
• It removes the hurdles associated with freelance work to earn a regular income from a source other than an employer.
• Boost employment to population ratio: The labour-intensive nature of GI offers the best solution to boosting the employment-to-population ratio in India, an abysmal 43 per cent compared with the 55 per cent global average.
• Increase female labor participation: Monetising artisanal work done at home will increase India’s low female labour force participation rate, which at 21 per cent in 2019 was half the 47 per cent global average.
• Reverse urban migration: The hyper-localised nature of GI offers solutions to reverse urban migration and conserve India’s ancient crafts, culture and food. Another revenue-earner, GI tourism, is typically a by-product of a strong GI ecosystem.

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Which of the pairs given above is /are correct?

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(d) 2 and 3